What Makes Us Happy?

How do you seek happiness?

Is happiness a goal or a result of a goal achieved? Many people go
through life seeking happiness, only to find it elude their grasp.
Others always seem to be happy, even in the face of tragedy. Why is
this so? Could those who seek happiness struggle to find it in the
wrong places, with the wrong people, and with the wrong agenda? Is
happiness a goal or a result of a goal achieved?

Psalm 1 proposed happiness was the result of a lifestyle. “Happy the
person...” According to the psalmist, the happy person was one who
avoided evil and studied the ways of God found in the Law. In other
words, the happy person made God and his will (found in the Torah) the
primary goal of life; “feeling good” was a secondary effect of
faith. By implicit contrast, the unhappy person was the
cynic and evil-doer, the one who cared little for God’s will, the one
who thought he could make himself happy. By extending this logic a
little further, the happy person placed God above self and lived for
God; the unhappy person lived only for the self.

1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of
the wicked,
nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of YHWH.
On his law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
that brings forth its fruit in its season,
whose leaf also does not wither.
Whatever he does shall prosper.

World English Bible

The way to happiness, then, was to live according to God’s commands
in every conscious moment (1:2b). This paralleled what was also
expressed in the Shema (Deu. 6:4-9):

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you
shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I
enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at
home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your
wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write
them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. (NAB)

Notice this dedication to God was more than a commitment; it was a
lifestyle and a value to pass on to the next generation. The result of
that lifestyle created consistency and growth. (1:3) By contrast, the
self-centered shot from fad to fad in the search of fulfillment; their
lifestyle was like “chaff that blew away with the wind.” (1:4)

4 The wicked are not so,
but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For YHWH knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked shall perish.

In the end, God would favor the faithful, not those who placed self
above all. The faithful would gather together with him (the “assembly
of the just”) while the self-absorbed would find judgement and ruin.
(1:5-6; it is unclear whether these verses referred to comment on a
present state of affairs or a belief in an end times “Day of the
Lord”).

“The faith-filled person is happy.” I have found that statement to be
true by experience. The people I most admire are those who live
happily with God. That commitment shades their entire existence in a
joyful glow. Their smile is genuine, their love for their spouse and
children overflows. These are the people I want to be around; these
are the people I am proud to call my friends and my heroes. I find
their happiness is infectious, because it finds its roots in something
I value most of all: a deep love for God.

How is your faith and love for God the cause of your
happiness?

Psalm 1

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